Gold Part 14

I drove to the beach, and speedily charged my wagon with as large a load as prudence advised me. The firm of Howard Mellin & Company proved to have quarters in a frame shack on what is now Montgomery Street. It was only a short haul, but a muddy one. Nearly opposite their store a new wharf was pushing its way out into the bay. I could see why this and other firms clung so tenaciously to their locations on rivers of bottomless mud in preference to moving up into the drier part of town.

I enjoyed my day hugely. My eminent position on the driver's seat--eminent both actually and figuratively--gave me a fine opportunity to see the sights and to enjoy the homage men seemed inclined to accord the only wagon in town. The feel of the warm air was most grateful. Such difficulties as offered served merely to add zest to the job. At noon I ate some pilot bread and a can of sardines bought from my employers.

About two o'clock the wind came up from the sea, and the air filled with the hurrying clouds of dust.

In my journeys back and forth I had been particularly struck by the bold, rocky hill that shut off the view toward the north. Atop this hill had been rigged a two-armed semaph.o.r.e, which, one of the clerks told me, was used to signal the sight of ships coming in the Golden Gate. The arms were variously arranged according to the rig or kind of vessel.

Every man, every urchin, every Chinaman, even, knew the meaning of these various signals. A year later, I was attending a theatrical performance in the Jenny Lind Theatre on the Plaza. In the course of the play an actor rushed on frantically holding his arms outstretched in a particularly wooden fashion, and uttering the lines, "What means this, my lord!"

"A side-wheel steamer!" piped up a boy's voice from the gallery.

Well, about three o'clock of this afternoon, as I was about delivering my fifth load of goods, I happened to look up just as the semaph.o.r.e arms hovered on the rise. It seemed that every man on the street must have been looking in the same direction, for instantly a great shout went up.

"A side-wheel steamer! The _Oregon_!"

At once the streets were alive with men hurrying from all directions toward the black rocks at the foot of Telegraph Hill, where, it seems, the steamer's boats were expected to land. Flags were run up on all sides, firearms were let off, a warship in the harbour broke out her bunting and fired a salute. The decks of the steamer, as she swept into view, were black with men; her yards were gay with colour. Uptown some devoted soul was ringing a bell; and turning it away over and over, to judge by the sounds. I pulled up my mules and watched the vessel swing down through the ranks of the shipping and come to anchor. We had beaten out our comrades by a day!

At five o'clock a small boy boarded me.

"You're to drive the mules up to McGlynn's and unhitch them and leave them," said he. "I'm to show you the way."

"Where's McGlynn?" I asked.

"He's getting his mail."

We drove to a corral and three well-pitched tents down in the southern edge of town. Here a sluggish stream lost its way in a swamp of green hummocky gra.s.s. I turned out the mules in the corral and hung up the harness.

"McGlynn says you're to go to the post-office and he'll pay you there,"

my guide instructed me.

The post-office proved to be a low adobe one-story building, with the narrow veranda typical of its kind. A line of men extended from its door and down the street as far as the eye could reach. Some of them had brought stools or boxes, and were comfortably reading sc.r.a.ps of paper.

I walked down the line. A dozen from the front I saw Johnny standing.

This surprised me, for I knew he could not expect mail by this steamer.

Before I had reached him he had finished talking to a stranger, and had yielded his place.

"Hullo!" he greeted me. "How you getting on?"

"So-so!" I replied. "I'm looking for a man who owes me twenty-five dollars."

"Well, he's here," said Johnny confidently. "Everybody in town is here."

We found McGlynn in line about a block down the street. When he saw me coming he pulled a fat buckskin bag from his breeches pocket, opened its mouth, and shook a quant.i.ty of its contents, by guess, into the palm of his hand.

"There you are," said he; "that's near enough. I'm a pretty good guesser. I hope you took care of the mules all right; you ought to, you're from a farm."

"I fixed 'em."

"And the mud? How many times did you get stuck?"

"Not at all."

He looked at me with surprise.

"Would you think of that, now!" said he. "You must have loaded her light."

"I did."

"Did you get all the goods over?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'll acknowledge you're a judgematical young man; and if you want a job with me I'll let that lawyer go I spoke to the judge about. He handed it to me then, didn't he?" He laughed heartily. "No? Well, you're right. A man's a fool to work for any one but himself. Where's your bag?

Haven't any? How do you carry your dust? Haven't any? I forgot; you're a tenderfoot, of course." He opened his buckskin sack with his teeth, and poured back the gold from the palm of his hand. Then he searched for a moment in all his pockets, and produced a most peculiar chunk of gold metal. It was nearly as thick as it was wide, shaped roughly into an octagon, and stamped with initials. This he handed to me.

"It's about a fifty-dollar slug," said he, "you can get it weighed. Give me the change next time you see me."

"But I may leave for the mines to-morrow," I objected.

"Then leave the change with Jim Recket of the El Dorado."

"How do you know I'll leave it?" I asked curiously.

"I don't," replied McGlynn bluntly. "But if you need twenty-five dollars worse than you do a decent conscience, then John A. McGlynn isn't the man to deny you!"

Johnny and I left for the hotel.

"I didn't know you expected any mail," said I.

"I don't."

"But thought I saw you in line----"

"Oh, yes. When I saw the mail sacks, it struck me that there might be quite a crowd; so I came up as quickly as I could and got in line. There were a number before me, but I got a place pretty well up in front. Sold the place for five dollars, and only had to stand there about an hour at that."

"Good head!" I admired. "I'd never have thought of it. How have you gotten on?"

"Pretty rotten," confessed Johnny. "I tried all morning to find a decent opportunity to do something or deal in something, and then I got mad and plunged in for odd jobs. I've been a regular errand boy. I made two dollars carrying a man's bag up from the ship."

"How much all told?"

"Fifteen. I suppose you've got your pile."

"That twenty-five you saw me get is the size of it."

Johnny brightened; we moved up closer in a new intimacy and sense of comradeship over delinquency. It relieved both to feel that the other, too, had failed. To enter the Plaza we had to pa.s.s one of the larger of the gambling places.

"I'm going in here," said Johnny, suddenly.

He swung through the open doors, and I followed him.